Judge Orders DOJ to Release Additional Portions of Mueller Report

By Jeffrey Rodack | NEWSMAX

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton has ordered the Justice Department to release certain redacted portions of Robert Mueller’s report by Nov. 2 – one day before the presidential election.

BuzzFeed News reported that Walton ruled the DOJ  had improperly redacted significant sections of the report. Those redacted items included discussions within then-Special Counsel Mueller’s office about whether to charge certain people with crimes.

Along with the charging discussions, the redactions also appear to include talks related to the hack of emails from the Democratic National Committee in early 2016 and the Trump campaign’s interest in those documents when WikiLeaks released them that June, according to BuzzFeed News.

The website noted the ruling means the Justice Department will have to release at least 15 previously blackout pages of Mueller’s 448-page report on the Russia interference investigation on or before Nov. 2.

Walton issued his ruling in response to an 18-month legal challenge by BuzzFeed News and the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) to release the entire Mueller report.

The judge also ruled that the DOJ was right to redact much of the Mueller report under separate exemptions that are aimed at protecting the integrity of ongoing investigations, law enforcement techniques, and privacy of individuals.

Last year, the DOJ released 500 pages of summaries of FBI interviews with witnesses related to Mueller’s Russia probe.

The release of the so-called “302 reports” came in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed to gain access to primary source documents Mueller’s investigators used.

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https://www.newsmax.com/politics/robert-mueller-report-redacted-judge/2020/10/01/id/989791/